No change for reluctant millionaire

In his anorak and jeans, David Ashcroft clearly has no desire to stand out as he makes the 15-minute journey home from the small garage where he repairs furniture.

What makes this mundane routine remarkable is that the 37-year-old carpenter is a multi-millionaire, having scooped more than £12.3 million on the lottery.

When he won the cash seven years ago, Mr Ashcroft said: "I'm an ordinary, quiet introvert. This may change me, but I hope not."

According to friends, he meant what he said and has stubbornly refused to let wealth alter him.

He still lives at the same three-bedroom terraced house with his parents, Jean, 64, and Roy, 65, in the Liverpool suburb of Mossley Hill and works alone at the dingy workshop he has had for years.

"You see him walking up and down the main road every day," said one neighbour. "Even in the pouring rain he will walk past the taxi rank to get the bus into town."

Never stops to chat

After putting in an eight-hour day, Mr Ashcroft walks home for tea and a few hours in front of the TV.

He never stops to chat to neighbours and only occasionally breaks his journey to buy a paper at the newsagent's.

"The butcher across the road used to swear about him," said the neighbour, who asked not to be named. "He used to say 'With all the money he's got, he comes in here and buys the smallest cuts of meat he can find.'

"People round here call him all sorts for staying in that tiny house, but he just wants to get on with things as normal."

Mr Ashcroft doesn't drink or smoke and, as far as neighbours can tell, he has never had a girlfriend or travelled abroad.

His only vice appears to be an occasional cream cake, which may account for the extra stone he has put on since his win.

"His dad used to drink in the British Legion," said a friend. "He and David went there the night he won and everyone had a big do, but I wouldn't be surprised if neither of them has been there since."

New cars for the family

Mr Ashcroft occasionally takes his parents to stay at the holiday caravan in North Wales he bought from his winnings.

At his £120,000 home, the only outward signs of anyone splashing out are the double-glazed windows and front door.

But despite apparently spending little on himself, Mr Ashcroft has been more than happy to share his winnings with the rest of his family.

Personalised plates might sit rather uneasily on his father's battered Ford Transit van, but there are top of the range cars outside the homes of both his sisters. And when he told his brother Alan to nip out and buy himself a new motor, he came back with a £60,000 Ferrari.

Outside his sister Janet Convery's five-bedroom house in the Calderstones district of Liverpool, a sporty Lexus sits alongside a Shogun.

The property is monitored by the latest infra-red CCTV cameras and bristles with burglar alarm systems.

"Nothing has changed for him since he won the lottery. He just wants to get on with things as they were."

Another neighbour, afraid to give her name for fear of upsetting the "nice, ordinary" family by speaking out, said: "No one can quite fathom it.

"Some people say he's afraid of what it would do to him if he started spending it, afraid of what he might become."

Amanda Davidson, a partner at financial services firm Charcol Holden Meehan in London, said had Mr Ashcroft's fortune been invested wisely seven years ago, he could now be worth as much as £28 million.